Monday, March 11, 2013

Malawi Police round up coup plotters: Kaliati first to be picked, Mussa in
By Nyasa Times Reporter
March 11, 2013

Malawi Police on Monday morning rounded-up former six cabinet ministers who addressed a controversial news conference at night on April 5, 2012 to block President Joyce Banda to rise to power following the death of her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika who suffered cardiac arrest.

First to be picked was former information minister Patricia Kaliati who was taken to Kanengo police. Police also picked former Guard Commander for late Mutharika, Commissioner Duncan Mwapasa.
The police had also stormed residences of other former ministers Symon Vuwa Kaunda, Dr Jean Kalilani, Henry Mussa, Nicholas Dausi and Kondwani Nakhumwa.

They all belong to former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) .

The crackdown down comes days after the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the the circumstances of the death of Mutharika, revealed a transitional coup plot.

Mutharika, who had been president since 2004, died on April 5 , 2012 following a heart attack anointed his brother Peter, the former foreign affairs minister and now acting president of DPP, as his heir apparent, even though President Banda, as Mutharika’s vice-president, was next in line to succeed him at his death.

When Mutharika died, several ministers had met twice to seek ways of installing Peter Mutharika as the new president instead.

The report has also exposed the request Peter Mutharika, Chief Secretary to Office of President and Cabinet, Bright Msaka and Economic Planning Minister Goodall Gondwr made to the Malawi Defence Force to take over power when Bingu died.

President Banda told Parliament when she set up the commission that “depending on the outcome [of the inquiry], appropriate action will be taken for important lessons to be learned.”

More heads are going to roll. Nyasa Times will keep updating on this development.

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